KOHAT: Local councillors and elders have expressed concern over open sale of drugs to youth in the district and asked the government to destroy hemp crop in the nearby Orakzai area and take action against drug peddlers.

They appealed to DIG, Kohat region, Mohammad Ijaz Khan to establish more checkposts at the border with Orakzai tribal district especially at Bezote point and increase patrolling to curb smuggling.

District councillor Mian Shah Raza of Ustarzai said that the open border between Mohammadzai town of Kohat and Bezote tribal area was the root cause of smuggling hashish and the people mostly youth went there to fulfil their need the whole day. He claimed that Bezote tribesmen had established hashish stores at the border for its onward smuggling.

District councillor Dr Matiullah Shah said that hashish, heroin and now ice drug were available through peddlers throughout the district.

When contacted, police PRO Fazal Naeem said that checking drug smuggling was in fact the job of anti-narcotics force and customs.

However, he said that the practice had been discouraged substantially as the police had two checkpoints at Marai Bala and Payan on Orakzai road besides deployment of elite force and full time patrolling by the cantonment and Ustarzai police.

He said that earlier maunds of drugs would be seized which had come down to kilogrammes.

FOOD SAFETY: The provincial government has given the Food Safety and Halal Food Authority (FSHFA) the powers to check hygiene and sale of expired and banned food items since March 2018 while restraining the food and tourism departments and local administration to just controlling the prices.

The authority’s deputy director Kamran Yousufzai addressing a press conference on the occasion of visit of DIG, Kohat, Mohmmad Ijaz Khan at its local headquarters here on Tuesday said that initially the authority had been extended to seven districts where all other departments would cease to exercise their overlapping powers under the 1914 act.

He said that other departments could still discharge their multiple functions of checking prices, hygiene, etc in areas where the FSHFA act was not enforced yet. He said that during last six month they inspected 1,710 sites, destroyed 1,799 items and sealed 48 points for unhygienic conditions and adulteration in Kohat.

He said that a campaign would soon be started to enforce ban on sale of snacks and cold drinks inside educational institutions.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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